This Day in Reds History: Winter trivia coming down to the wire

On this day in 1869, former Red Jack McCarthy was born in Hardwick, MA. McCarthy played leftfield for the Reds in 1893 and '94. In those two seasons, he slashed .276/.351/.345 (75 OPS+) in just over 400 plate appearances. He returned to Indianapolis in the Western League for the 1895-'97 seasons. McCarthy came back to the majors in 1898, and he enjoyed another 10 seasons as a big league ballplayer.

On this day in 1931, Cincinnati selected Hall of Famer Edd Roush off waivers from the New York Giants. Roush and the Reds had a number of big seasons during his first stint with Cincinnati from 1916 to 1926, including a World Series championship in 1919.

On this day in 1942, former Red Mel Queen was born in Johnson City, NY. Queen came up as a rightfielder with Cincinnati in 1964. He didn't receive much playing time as an outfielder, instead pinch hitting in many of his appearances. (A starting outfield of Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson, and Tommy Harper doesn't leave many at-bats for a fifth outfielder.) The 1966 season also saw Queen toss seven innings for the Reds in relief. Queen became a full time pitcher in 1967, which was also his best season as a major league player. He hurled 195 innings of 2.76 ERA (137 ERA+) ball to earn nearly 5 bWAR. However, Queen could not replicate his success from that season and never threw more than 65.2 innings again. He wrapped up his big league career with three years with the California Angels from 1970 through '72.

Also on this day in 1942, the Reds selected outfielder Gee Walker off the waiver wire from the Cleveland Indians.

On this day in 1960, Baltimore's Lee MacPhail moved a series between the Orioles and the Reds from Havana to Miami in response to ongoing political turmoil in Cuba. The Reds had wanted to go ahead with the trip, because Cincinnati had a farm team in Cuba.

On this day in 1982, the Reds traded catcher Joe Nolan to the Orioles for prospect Brooks Carey and outfielder Dallas Williams.

Kevin Mitchell is Batman and Big Fat Fatty each earned a point last time.

Today's post is the penultimate entry for the off-season trivia contest. ams78 leads the way with 12 points, but Kevin Mitchell is Batman trails by only point. The complete standings are below. There are still some unanswered questions in the backlog that can be answered until the first pitch of the season. Please answer any questions in the most current TDIRH thread so that I may see your reply. If you could also include the date of the TDIRH in question that would help me to verify your answer in a timely fashion. Finally, if I have made a mistake in awarding points or tabulating totals, please let me know in the comments.

This tidbit is too difficult for a trivia question, and it isn't related to the Reds either, but Chris Jaffe pointed out that with the passing of Virgil Trucks, there is only one person left on Earth that faced the Cubs in a World Series: Ed Mierkowicz. I thought I'd pass that one along just for fun.

1) When Edd Roush died in 1988 he was the last surviving player to have competed in which professional league?

2) Edd Roush is 10th all-time in bWAR among Reds position players with 38.3 bWAR. Only two of the players ahead of him started their stints with the Reds before Roush did in 1916. Name them. A point will be awarded for each player.